National Pension Service Buys 51,471 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

National Pension Service boosted its stake in shares of Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 3.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 1,467,122 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 51,471 shares during the period. National Pension Service’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $219,452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC lifted its stake in Blackstone by 519,669.1% in the second quarter. Kingstone Capital Partners Texas LLC now owns 70,132,441 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $10,490,411,000 after acquiring an additional 70,118,948 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Blackstone by 1.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 67,997,581 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $9,504,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,102,949 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in Blackstone by 16.3% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 5,292,320 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $739,761,000 after buying an additional 742,829 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC lifted its holdings in Blackstone by 4.4% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 4,291,546 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $599,872,000 after buying an additional 182,526 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 2.9% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 4,162,867 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $581,886,000 after acquiring an additional 117,724 shares during the period. 70.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Blackstone Stock Down 0.5%

BX stock opened at $144.29 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $164.30 and its 200 day moving average is $157.67. The firm has a market cap of $106.55 billion, a PE ratio of 41.23, a P/E/G ratio of 1.18 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a one year low of $115.66 and a one year high of $200.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.75.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, November 22nd. The asset manager reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.49 billion during the quarter. Blackstone had a return on equity of 22.30% and a net margin of 20.56%. On average, research analysts forecast that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 EPS for the current year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, November 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 3rd were given a dividend of $1.29 per share. This is a positive change from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.03. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 3rd. This represents a $5.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Blackstone’s payout ratio is 147.43%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on BX shares. TD Cowen reduced their target price on shares of Blackstone from $208.00 to $205.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $177.00 to $176.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 24th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on Blackstone from $197.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, October 22nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on shares of Blackstone from $190.00 to $180.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and nine have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $179.74.

Insider Activity at Blackstone

In related news, major shareholder Private Multi-Asset Blackstone acquired 2,538,071 shares of Blackstone stock in a transaction on Monday, September 22nd. The stock was bought at an average cost of $25.61 per share, for a total transaction of $64,999,998.31. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 7,506,209 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $192,234,012.49. The trade was a 51.09% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Joseph Baratta sold 113,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $175.69, for a total transaction of $19,852,970.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 695,757 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $122,237,547.33. This represents a 13.97% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders purchased a total of 2,565,141 shares of company stock worth $68,991,351 in the last quarter. 1.00% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About Blackstone

Blackstone Inc is an alternative asset management firm specializing in real estate, private equity, hedge fund solutions, credit, secondary funds of funds, public debt and equity and multi-asset class strategies. The firm typically invests in early-stage companies. It also provide capital markets services.